The ratings of the governors of Crimea and Sevastopol collapsed on New Year's Eve

The end of 2018 was marked by a drop in the ratings of the governors of Crimea and Sevastopol. Such data was recorded by a closed study commissioned by the Kremlin. The RBC agency reported about it with reference to its own sources.

Sergei Aksenov’s rating has fallen by 31% since April, and Dmitry Ovsyannikov’s performance literally collapsed - minus 45%, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.

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For the leader of Sevastopol, the reason for the loss of positions was the inability to find a common language with the local elites.

“As one of the main reasons, the interlocutors, referring to the findings of the opinion poll, name the conflict between the head of the region and a group of deputies of the Legislative Assembly led by ex-speaker Alexei Chaly. Despite the special attention to Sevastopol from the country’s leadership, “the conflict is escalating,” and it was initiated by the government of Sevastopol and the governor, sources close to the Kremlin retell the study’s findings. Citizens evaluate the participation of the head of the region in such conflicts negatively, summarizes one of them,” writes RBC.

The agency cites “personnel leapfrog”, a high level of corruption, as well as an attempt to hush up the release of chemicals at the Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash’s “Crimean Titan” plant in Armyansk, which occurred due to a lack of water in the north of the peninsula, as the reasons for the fall in Aksenov’s rating.

Political scientist Alexander Formanchuk believes that the residents of Sevastopol have already lost faith in getting a governor in the person of Ovsyannikov, who enjoys the trust of the federal center.

“Now there is talk in Sevastopol about squeezing out business, about some other steps of its administration, the top officials of which consist of officials from mainland Russia. And in this sense, it seems to me that the fall in Ovsyannikov’s rating is predictable. And the point is not how many positions he has lost, and whether he is a candidate for relegation or not. This is all very conditional. And it is important that the governor takes steps that would be positively assessed both in Sevastopol and in the federal center. And here there is a gap,” Formanchuk said in an interview with the Forpost website.

“The ongoing internal political conflict in Sevastopol will be reflected in the electoral positions of Dmitry Ovsyannikov. To believe or not to believe the published figures - let everyone decide for themselves... The current conflict situation cannot but be reflected in the level of popular legitimacy of the governor and other political actors in the Hero City,” Crimean political scientist Ivan Mezyukho told PolitNavigator.

Crimean political scientist Vladimir Dzharalla commented on the fall in Aksenov’s rating to PolitNavigator as follows:

“Over the course of five years, there has been quite a strong disappointment due to the gap in hopes about what miracle happened then, five years ago, how brilliantly these people showed themselves in an extreme situation and what happened during the period of peaceful construction.

Of course, a tremendous amount of work has been done, of course, especially federal projects are distinguished by high efficiency and quality, but at the level of what we call Crimea, we see only the “swamp” that is well known to us - in politics, in public relations, in the economy. The already familiar work patterns, policies, personnel appointments, and the like are traditional.

Personnel policy, which clearly does not have a system and always looks like a shuffling of either old personnel, or operates on the old principle of punishing the innocent and rewarding the innocent.

At the same time, there is a feeling that nothing is happening in Crimea in terms of development, and therefore the question is what to do next. This shows the attitude towards the authorities, which is reflected in closed polls,” said Jarallah.